Recycled Tee-shirts With a Story

If you are looking for something cool to wear this autumn and feeling guilty about spending money and buying new; then Re-Shirt is for you. They are vintage, (second-hand as we used to call them) and they come with provenance. Available only on-line, the shirts, in good condition, have been donated to Re-Shirt. The story of each item of clothing, be it boring or interesting, must be included with the donation. Each shirt is then given a registered orange Re-Shirt label and number which is kept on file. So when you buy yours, you know the background of the piece of clothing and you can type in your shirt code and continue the journey by writing your chapter of the life of the shirt.

Clothing is no longer just an anonymous object, instead its story and the experiences associated with it are passed on. The longer the shirt is in circulation, the better its history becomes. And as a donor you get to watch how a personal piece of clothing takes on another life instead of just sitting around in a cupboard, taking up space.

Two Austrians started the company after they learned about the resources needed to make one cotton t-shirt. For example, "Each year more than 20 million tons of cotton are produced. Extremely large amounts of water are used in the cotton production process. On average, 20,000 litres of water are needed to produce 1 kilogram of raw cotton. The extreme amounts of water needed for growing cotton have resulted among other things in the drying up of the Aral Sea, one of the biggest environmental catastrophes of our time." So they came up with the idea for the recycling of existing tee-shirts in order to keep them in circulation and reduce the amount of cotton used.

The stories behind the shirts are fascinating. This one (pictured) is called "Saturday in Tokyo" and here is its story, from Eric in Austria: " I bought this t-shirt on a rainy Saturday morning in Shinyuku, Tokyo. I wanted a piece reminding me of the wonderful moments I had experienced in Japan. But there is another thing: The figure on the t-shirt is a symbol for my own life journey. It´s pretty hard for me to give this piece away. I hope someone will appreciate it." :: Re-ShirtMore on Recycled Clothing

If you are looking for something cool to wear this autumn and feeling guilty about spending money and buying new; then Re-Shirt is for you. They are vintage, (second-hand as we used to call them) and they come with provenance. Available only on-line,